6th September

Our first meeting for September was last Thursday.

Our group passed around a hat and collected $170 for The Farmers Drought Relief Fund and donated to Crookwell Country Women’s Association for distribution along with 2 quilts for them to raffle [I showed you the photos of these in the last post here].

The quilt we gave to Massey Park Golf Club Women’s Committee for their fundraising day on 29^th August raised $175.

Rose Incampo from Handital came to meet us and talk to us about what their aims are.  This organisation creates a community for people with disabilities, their families and carers, where they will be treated with respect, equality, justice and appreciation of their particular values and abilities, and is located at Five Dock.  We have given her a quilt to raffle at their dinner in October.   You can read a bit more about the organisation here.

Here are the quilts which came in this week.

First two were made by Jill.

Robin quilted the next 3 quilts, all made by the lovely ladies from Shepparton:

One made by Jan

 

And these two made by Sheryl

 

Helen brought in some beanies and a scarf

 

 

And the last 4 quilts were made by Evelyn.

 

 

Riverboat Postman

Once in a while when there are 5 Thursdays in the month we do something fun which is purely social.  Usually it's in January, but last month we decided to do a trip on the Riverboat Postman.

The first Riverboat Postman started the run in 1910 (in a rowboat!) and is the only river based mail run in Australia.  Nowadays Hawkesbury Cruises has the Australia Post contract to deliver mail (and sometimes other essentials like milk, newspapers etc.) to the tiny settlements along the Hawkesbury River, north of Sydney.  None of these communities have road access, so this is a really essential service. 

It was a glorious day to be on the water; not too hot but with a brilliant sun shining.  We were served a delicious Morning tea and entertained by the Captain, who was a long standing Hawkesbury resident, delivering a hoot of a commentary full of anecdotes, gossip and history about the river and the residents. 

 

Our first port of call was Dangar Island, where there is a sizeable community of permanent residents.   Governor Arthur Phillip, explored the lower river by small boat in March 1788 within weeks of the First Fleet's arrival. He named it Mullet Island, for the abundance of fish in the local Hawkesbury River.  

 

The island was purchased in 1864 and renamed by Henry Cary Dangar, the son of Henry Dangar, a surveyor, pastoralist and parliamentarian.

 

Leaving Dangar Island and cruising upriver, and under the railway bridge we began to pass some spectacular examples of Hawkesbury sandstone.  If I heard it correctly, this rock has been nicknamed Boob Rock! 

 

Along the river a bit, was Milson Island.  The island was first settled over 100 years ago and has been used as a bacteriological station, quarantine station, a hospital to treat soldiers from WWI with venereal disease, mental hospital, a rehab for alcoholics, a women's jail, and now a sports and recreation centre. 

 

After passing the wreck of HMAS Parramatta, the first ship commissioned for the Australian Navy (sorry, no photo - I wasn't quick enough),  we continued on to Bar Point.  As with most places along the route, we were met at the wharf by a couple of residents.

 

Living here would be hard to take, eh?

 

The settlements along the river were originally for agriculture.  Some, such as Pumpkin Creek [population 2] are inaccessible to a boat the size of the Riverboat Postman, and we were told that the mailbag gets left out on a post stuck in the water.  Alternatively, one of the residents will row a boat out to meet the Postman.  Many of these settlements have none of the essential services so the Postman is a vital service, as is the family owned business which has collected garbage from the small communities for the last 35 years. 

 

The last place we visited was Milson's Passage [population 18], although officially a suburb of Sydney, is known locally as the Republic of Milson's Passage.  John Carrick is the self proclaimed King.  He greets the Riverboat Postman cruise each day, sitting on his "throne" to give a speech of welcome.

 

 

And all too soon it was time to board the train to go home.